Immune activation during measles: interferon-gamma and neopterin in plasma and cerebrospinal fluid in complicated and uncomplicated disease

Article Abstract:

Measles can be a potentially severe viral infection. The immune system responds to the measles virus by both suppressing and activating the immune response, followed by eventual clearing of the infection. However, some patients have increased susceptibility to reactivated or secondary infections, particularly encephalomyelitis, a condition causing nerve damage. The ability of the specialized immune cells called T lymphocytes to produce infection-fighting interferons may help explain the simultaneous activation and suppression of the immune system during measles infections. Interferon and neopterin, a by-product that is produced by immune cells known as macrophages after interferon stimulation, were measured in the blood and fluid surrounding the brain and spinal cord (cerebrospinal fluid) in healthy and infected patients. Interferon and neopterin levels were higher in patients with measles than adults or children without measles or children with another infectious disease. Interferon was higher during the period of measles infection exhibiting the characteristic rash. Increases in neopterin continued for a few weeks. Other substances produced by T cells, interleukin-2 receptors and CD8, correlated well with the level of neopterin in the blood. Children who developed complications of a measles infection such as pneumonia had higher levels of neopterin in the blood than children without a complication. Children with encephalomyelitis had higher levels of neopterin in the cerebrospinal fluid than children without a complication. Therefore, interferon may play a role in the development of nerve damage produced during postinfection encephalomyelitis. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Measurement, Physiological aspects, Development and progression, T cells, Interferon, Encephalomyelitis

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Use of a new CD4-positive HeLa cell clone for direct quantitation of infectious human immunodeficiency virus from blood cells of AIDS patients

Article Abstract:

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is thought to cause AIDS. Knowledge of inactive (latent) HIV, and the ability to distinguish active from latent HIV may be important for understanding the origins and development of AIDS. At present, blood cells to be tested for the presence of active HIV are mixed with cells that are known to be free of HIV. If active HIV is present, it spreads to the normal cells in great enough quantity to be detected. While this method can detect infectious HIV cells in nearly 100 percent of seropositive (HIV-infected) individuals, it can not distinguish between blood cells that have active HIV and cells that may have had latent HIV that was activated during the testing. Blood samples were taken from HIV-positive adults who had symptoms of AIDS or were asymptomatic (no symptoms). Using a new method that detects the spread of virus to a target cell, it was found that a single cell producing HIV could be identified among 3 million uninfected cells. Further, target cells were washed of cells to be tested every 40 hours, so there was no time for cells that might be activated during the testing to react. This test thus provides a sensitive and accurate quantitative method of measuring active HIV cells in a blood specimen. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Diagnosis, Testing, HIV infection, HIV infections, HIV (Viruses), HIV, Identification and classification, AIDS (Disease)

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Immune activation in measles

Article Abstract:

Experiments were made to investigate the complications measles can cause in the immune system. Measles sometimes cause the immune system to attack the body's own tissues and inflame nerve cells by destroying their coating of insulation. Patients with measles have more of two substances in their blood that the body uses to trigger is disease-fighting capabilities than dopatients with other infectious diseases or healthy people. It is concluded that the phase of the development of the disease in the patient during which the body is spreading around the cells it uses to fight the disease, begins before the rash appears and continues for weeks in patients who have measles without complications.

Analysis, Interleukin-2, Blood chemical analysis, Drug receptors, blood, Cerebrospinal fluid

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